How the hell had that happened? She hadn’t felt truly safe since the day her parents and her Pack turned their backs on her.

“Is everything all right?”

She looked up to find the waiter standing by their table, a concerned look on his face. “Everything’s fine.” She pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes.

“Can we have a moment? I think we’re going to have dessert and coffee. The tiramisu looks really good.” Bunny took a seat next to her, scooting his chair closer, angling his body in between hers and the waiter’s.

Big goof. From the look on his face, he wasn’t about to let anyone near her he didn’t approve of personally. It was sweet, in a caveman sort of way, but could be a real pain in the ass if he chose to act that way at LA. She could feel her lips curving up in a smile at the protective gesture. She cleared the last of the tears from her throat. “I’m thinking of the French silk pie.”

“Two coffees?” The waiter left to fetch their desserts after they nodded, leaving them alone.

He stroked her fingers, refusing to let go of her hand. His eyes turned back to the warm hazel they’d been before she began discussing her Outcasting. “Did you really live in the woods all those years?”

“Yes. If it wasn’t for Gabe and his grandmother, I’d still be living out there.” Or dead. But she wouldn’t say that in front of the increasingly growly Bunny. His chest was actually rumbling.

“Where are you from originally?” The question was innocent, but Bunny’s expression was anything but. In the dim lighting, she couldn’t quite see the color of his eyes, but she thought they might have darkened just a hair.

She decided it couldn’t hurt to answer in a roundabout way. “Georgia.”

“Near Marietta?”

She shot him a look. No way was she confirming that he was right. Besides, she’d probably given it away when she mentioned her uncle worked for his father.

Bunny sighed. “Is there any way for you to join a local Pack?”

“The closest sanctioned Pack is in the Poconos, about two hours away.”

Bunny smiled sweetly as the waiter set the deserts on the table and left. “Ah. So, whereabouts in Marietta is your Pack, anyway?”

Tabby decided to try a little soothing of her own. She reached up and patted Bunny’s cheek. “Down, Baloo.” Bunny looked startled. “For a Bear, you’re awfully growly.” Tabby shook her head before taking a bite of her pie. Mmm, chocolate.

Screw that whole “chocolate isn’t good for canines” shit. After what she’d just gone through, she needed her fix.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. I know a Bear or two, and I thought most of you were pretty laid back.”

Bunny scowled. “And you think I’m not laid back?”

Tabby tried to hide her growing grin behind her coffee mug, but knew she’d failed when Bunny just shook his head.


They left the restaurant in total accord. Bunny helped Tabby onto the bike and climbed on after her, careful not to jar her. “Want to head to my place?” He had every intention of claiming her tonight, but had no desire to do so in her tiny apartment with her roommates down the hall. He took a deep breath. He longed for the scent of his mate to fill all the empty places inside him.

Instead, he caught the scent of something else, something terrible. “Chloe?” And blood. Lots of blood.

“Chloe? What about Chloe?”

“Tabby?” The scent was stronger now, the breeze bringing him his cousin’s pain.

He handed Tabby a helmet, the need to move, to protect his little cousin gripping him with steel hands.


“What?” She shoved the helmet on and wrapped her hands around his waist.

“I need you to hold on.” He started the bike, roaring out of Noah’s parking lot. He ignored Tabby’s squawk of surprise, concentrating only on getting to Chloe.

He turned the corner and found an ambulance, lights flashing in the darkness.

They illuminated the body of his little cousin sprawled on the street, her red hair mingling with the blood under her, around her. The paramedics bent over her body worked frantically to save her.

“Sir!”

He was off the bike and charging for the scene before anyone could stop him.

Chloe was hurt. Chloe needed him. Ryan was going to freak if anything happened to his baby sister. He needed to call Ryan…

Oh fuck. She looked dead. There was a stranger bent over her, obviously not a paramedic. The man had long, dark hair bound in a braid, but that was all Bunny allowed himself to see. “Chloe?” If he could just touch her, he might be able to help heal her.

One of the paramedics stared at him with sympathy in his eyes and shook his head ever so slightly.

Someone was tugging on the stranger’s arm. “Sir, you need to step back and allow us to do our job.”

“I’m a nurse,” the man growled, deep, bass, primal. It went straight for Bunny’s gut. The man was a Bear like him.

He trusted another Bear a hell of a lot more than he trusted a human paramedic.

“How is she?”

The man pushed Chloe’s light jacket aside, baring her shoulders. “She’ll live.”

The weary pain in the other Bear’s voice was a dagger in his gut. “Live how?”

A car screeched to a halt next to them. A blond man stepped out, his eyes concerned. “Let me through.”

Surprisingly, the men did. Bunny, however, wasn’t moving. Not until he scented Puma.

“I’m Dr. Jamie Howard. I saw the lights.” He knelt down next to Chloe, taking the bag a dark-haired woman, also Puma and smelling strongly of Dr. Howard, handed him. “What happened?”

“Julian Ducharme. I’m a nurse and acquainted with the patient. I don’t know what happened, but her injuries are bad.” Julian began a catalogue of Chloe’s wounds in a cool, professional tone that left Bunny feeling left out in the cold.

“Bunny? Who is she to you?”

He turned to find Tabby standing in front of him, shivering in her light dress. He took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her against him. He needed comfort, the scent of Chloe’s blood poisoning the air around him.

It was bad. He knew it was bad, just as he new his paltry gift was of no use here.

“She’s my baby cousin.”

Tabby sighed. “Oh, sugar.” She pulled his head into the crook of her neck, and held on tight. He took a deep breath but nothing could wash away the metallic tang of Chloe’s blood.


Tabby could barely see what Julian and Dr. Howard were doing. Bunny took up a lot of space in her field of vision, but she could hear what they were saying and it wasn’t good. Julian seemed to think he could help if he had time alone with her, but time was rapidly running out along with the other woman’s blood. Bunny trembled in her arms, his hands fisted at the small of her back. She knew he wanted to help, but there was no way he could. Even Tabby could see Chloe was beyond saving.

So she held on as hard as she could, feeling the fine tremors racking her mate’s body, while her friend knelt at the side of a dying woman.

“Make them go away, doctor. Get them away and I can save her.” Julian’s voice was intense.

“At what cost?”

Bunny stiffened in her arms at Dr. Howard’s soft words.

“Let me do this. I can save her, they can’t. Trust me.”

She almost walked over to tell Dr. Howard that Julian could be trusted, but before she could the man sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.” Dr. Howard walked over to the paramedics who’d huddled off to the side. “These are her family. They want a moment alone with her.”

“Sir, she’s not going to make it.”

Bunny keened softly, the sound full of anguish. His arms surrounded her, held her while he trembled.

“Let’s grant their wish. It’s not like it will hurt anything, or anyone.”

Somehow Dr. Howard got them away, got the paramedics to give them a moment of privacy.

Bunny let her go, grabbed hold of Julian’s hand and placed his other on Chloe’s shoulder. Tabby watched Julian take a deep breath and…

That’s when Tabby knew she was losing her mind.


Bunny relaxed and allowed Julian to direct the path of the healing. He might be a Bear, but Julian was trained as a nurse and had far more knowledge than Bunny could lay claim to. Modern medicine had made the healing the Bears did easier, allowing them to know the ways in which the body functioned, but it came at a price. A price Dr. Jamie Howard somehow knew about. The small amount of healing Bunny could do might keep his cousin alive long enough for them to get her to the hospital, but it would leave him exhausted. He knew he’d sleep around the clock after they were done.

He began to assess the damage. He could feel every cut, every bruise, every single broken bone his cousin suffered from. There was no way, no way they could save her. Her body was too injured to sustain life. It was amazing she’d lingered as long as she had.

He owed Julian for giving him the opportunity to say goodbye.


Just as Bunny opened his mouth to thank the other Bear, the strangest thing happened. Julian took a deep breath, focused, and his hair turned pure white.

And then the real healing began.

Julian mended the broken bones, repaired the severed blood vessels, healed the damage to her skull. The fluid pouring into her cranial cavity was causing pressure her fragile brain wouldn’t be able to tolerate. Julian drained it off efficiently and moved on to the next wound. Bunny could tell there was something wrong there, in the soft tissues of her brain, but he didn’t possess the knowledge to figure out what it was. He was pulled along in Julian’s wake, helpless to do anything but watch and marvel.

Bunny was stunned at the strength the other Bear possessed. Julian poured his energy into Chloe, revitalized flagging organs and sped the beat of her heart once all of the blood vessels had been properly repaired. He left enough outer damage that the paramedics would not be too suspicious of what had happened here this night.

He wouldn’t have much time when he was done. Bunny could sense the fatigue that pulled at the other Bear, trying to make him sloppy in his healing, but Julian pushed through. His healing remained precise, catching even the tiniest details of the internal damage Chloe had suffered. Bunny offered his strength, letting Julian pull on him to complete what Bunny knew was impossible. It wouldn’t be enough to keep the Bear on his feet more than five minutes, ten tops when they were done, but he would survive, thanks to the strength Bunny lent him. Bunny knew that Julian’s selfless act would have ended his life. The man had to have known it before he even started.

Bunny owed him, big time.

Another source of energy poured into him. Alien, feminine, it wrapped around him, scented by wild forests and the feel of soft paws on leaves. The howl of a wolf, barely heard, the pull of the moon on a four-limbed body told him whose energy filled him. Savage strength held in check by a heart too big for its frame coursed through him, leaving him dizzy and so aroused he almost lost the spiraling tendrils of the healing path. Tabby lent them her strength, using the bare beginnings of their mate bond to channel her energy through Bunny to Julian and ultimately to Chloe.

That added strength allowed him to help Julian finish healing Chloe. Julian pulled back and released his hold on Bunny, his hair turning dark once more.

Bunny watched the white fade from Julian’s hair until not a pearly strand was left. Julian was visibly shaking, deep dark circles under his eyes, but when he lifted his face, his expression was serene. “I’ve done all I can, and it wasn’t enough.”

And then he collapsed like a broken puppet. Bunny barely stopped his head from cracking on the street.

“Shit.” The blond doctor was suddenly there, concern in every line of his body. “I was afraid of this.”

“What’s this? He’s exhausted, isn’t he?” Both men turned and stared at Tabby. “I mean, I felt him…pulling on me, but it was weak. Like he was already tiring.”

Dr. Howard nodded. “Exactly.” He bent over Chloe, leaving Julian to Tabby and Bunny. Bunny checked Julian’s vitals with his own healing power and smiled.

He’d settled into a deep sleep and would probably be starving when he woke up, but he was going to be fine. He smiled at Tabby when she arranged Julian’s legs more comfortably on her lap. “Damn, Bear. Not bad. She’ll make it to the hospital.” Bunny turned from Tabby to find Doc Howard smiling. “I need to have a long talk with him when he wakes up. We could use someone like him.” Dr.